GCP vs Azure: Choosing the Right Cloud for Your Enterprise Migration

Your CTO just approved a multi-million dollar cloud migration, and now you're staring at two equally compelling proposals: one from Google Cloud, another from Azure. Both promise scalability, both tout enterprise-grade security, but the architectural decisions you make today will impact your team's velocity for years to come. The stakes are high—pick the wrong platform, and you'll spend the next quarter rewriting Terraform modules. Choose wisely, and your infrastructure becomes a competitive advantage. The reality is that GCP and Azure aren't just different cloud providers—they represent fundamentally different philosophies about how infrastructure should work. Google's Kubernetes-first approach and BigQuery's columnar architecture appeal to teams building data-intensive applications. Azure's seamless Active Directory integration and hybrid cloud capabilities make it the default choice for enterprises with existing Microsoft investments. But these high-level distinctions mask the real